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I admit it. When it comes to this story I'm totally and utterly biased. I love it to pieces. From the jokey TARDIS scenes with the ripping of the Manual pages to the Doctor hitting his lip to cover up Tom's dog bite to Romana trying to make contact with the locales I just really get this story.

I love DOUGLAS ADAMS and the original HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY radio shows (and the CDs are slightly cut). I get his humor and what I don't I try to.

I also like that there are SO many good ideas here mixing into a good, logical mix. Okay so some of it looks like PLANeT OF THE APES (the town) and the third FLASH GORDON serial (the tower buildings) and the captain's parrot and even the captain himself is right out of LOST IN SPACE-THE SKY PIRATE and TREASURE OF THE LOST PLANET...although in LOST IN SPACE the design is far better. Written sci fi has had planets that swallow other planets for ages. And the Mentiads are just like THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, especially the break out...Pralix's changes looks just like THE SLAVES OF JEDIKIAH but slowed down in pace somewhat.

Despite all of that, I just love how it all works in tandem. Romana's capture is a bit strange as she could have had K9 stop the guard from taking her but maybe she wanted to get to the heart of things?

Tom is just very funny again and the whole thing was really a science mystery. I just love this story and this ep in particular.

Basically a run around...with some of the best scenes I've ever seen in Doctor Who including: the Doctor's passioned horror at the captain's injustice of mummifying planets, even K9's defeat of the metal parrot is good. I once thought it was stupid but it's not. It's well done. And again the Doctor gives explanations about the planet sucking other planets dry to the Mentiads and Mula with Romana helping in the explanations--and she and Mula sometimes interupt him.

It's funny, it's fast paced, it's dramatic. And just when you get one thing explained, along comes the Queen...what is she about and how does she fit into the plot?

Again, terrific DW and a fairly good cliffhanger. Oh and why is the tracer going off all the time?

Perfect Doctor Who. Sorry, it just is. What I like most about this ep is that it starts to give us the questions and some answers: why would the Doctor send the girl Mula off alone to the Mentiads to find Pralix? What is the planet having to do with the other planet that Romana and the Doctor were looking for? Why is the Captain considered a big bully but making everyone rich? What happened to him? Who is that woman on the bridge? What does it mean when the sky lights change? How does the mine fill up with minerals. I love Tom Baker's entire delivery in this ep and yes, some of it is jokey, some of it flippant, however some of it is deadly serious and despite the Captain's over the top "performance" the Doctor (thanks to Tom mind you) makes you or rather me believe in the threat.

Mary Tamm is excellent in this as well making Romana the novice yet the expert in so many things, while keeping her somewhat conceited but also likable. Not an easy feat. Kimus is somewhat over the top too with his declaration of wanting to avenge the lost planets and having better skill than three of the guards. Again, for me, the jokes work, the fun keeps happening and yet there is that science fictiony mystery that just keeps on the wonder and strangeness...

Unlike most later DWs that give mystery (GHOSTLIGHT, CURSE OF FENRIC, PARADISE TOWERS) this one delivers the answers some in this ep and some in later eps and what great ideas and a great way to reveal them, agian unlike those of the past. THIS story has something that almost no other DW story (bar CITY OF DEATH and perhaps almost all of season 17 and a little bit of 18) has: humor, threat, fantastical and dangerous ideas, science mystery, and a flippant almost self effacting Doctor. Notice how he doesn't think he's opened the door. Notice how he flips the coin and it goes up and up and has two of the same heads...Notice how he walks out and then turns around, puts his arms around Mula and Kimus and talks to them directly.

K9 is in his element in this story. And by the way, the locales are so different, insuring there is always something interesting to look at: a big city, a giant engine room, a bridge, a nicely rich house with great walls, an open field, a waterfall, the way in, the way out, the mine...and a pretty good cliffhanger, the first really good one in some time...

So the villain is blown up, the other villain is shot, and the bridge exploded. Okay. It’s not the most original ending but it works and so did this entire story, at least for me. The fact that the Queen isn’t really revealed until now is so right and so good and fits in so much that it’s just so clever no one really notices that. Romana has shown that she’s “going to be allright” and the Doctor has shown some compassion and some coldness (notice how he just puts his arm around or over the dead body of the Captain?). The Doctor doing something incredibly clever is just so right also. I’m using the word so too much aren’t I? So? Anyway, onwards and upwards. DW can’t always be like this but for me, wouldn’t it be nice if it at least tried to always be like this?